Given the prevailing competitive market conditions, establishing long-term relationships proves a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Tacit knowledge, as the only resource developed in the intellect, in the competences and the experiences built up by the human resources available, would seem appropriate to constructing competitive advantage. Within this framework, firm employees become marketing managers in terms of developing relationships given that every type of contact generates information that facilitates a relational-based philosophy. In rural tourism, with its own very specific characteristics, tacit knowledge may contribute towards fostering loyalty and may also help in determining the requisites clients are seeking. This chapter proposes a model highlighting the importance of tacit knowledge in developing loyalty in rural tourism lodgings across its cognitive, technical, and social dimensions. The results show that tacit knowledge does improve the performance of employees in engaging in affective bonds and better understanding the needs and expectations of clients.
TopIntroduction
Given the newly prevailing competitive market conditions, establishing long-term relationships with customers proves to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage to companies. Tacit knowledge (TK), as a difficult to imitate resource, gains in priority as a factor worth exploring given how this resource is essential to customer loyalty and long term relationships (Chiao et al., 2008). Within this framework, the TK generated by rural lodging employees when contacting with customers facilitates a relational based philosophy turning rural lodging employees into marketing managers (Grönroos, 1994; Gummesson, 1991; Palmer, 2001).
Knowledge thereby represents an important resource to rural lodgings (Day & Wensley, 1988; Droege & Hoobler, 2003; Lesser et al., 2000; Nonaka, 1991; Pathirage et al., 2007; Prahalad & Hamel, 1990; Spender, 1996; Tiwana, 2000; Wernerfelt, 1984), enabling innovations that effectively improve the end service.
Hence, TK, as the only resource developed in the intellect by the competences and experiences built up by the human resources available would seem particularly suitable to developing competitive advantages (Droege & Hoobler, 2003) given the difficulties inherent to its imitation, its rarity and hence its value (Droege & Hoobler, 2003; Lubit, 2001; Teece, 1998). TK unfurls across various different dimensions in keeping with how its origins may stem from a range of situations: cognitive skills (individual capacities obtained from experience and life); technical skills (the ability to perform particular tasks); social skills and interactive capabilities (the capacity to interact and communicate with third parties) (Leonard & Insch, 2005; Nonaka, 1991).
Therefore, rural lodgings should focus on managing this knowledge, guaranteeing it is properly stored and handled, conveyed and applied whenever appropriate and necessary (Bose & Sugumaran, 2003; Tzokas & Saren, 2004). This ensures customers experience a feeling of welcome on being recognised and treated as if part of the family and correspondingly feel willing to stay longer (Čater & Čater, 2009; Patterson & Smith, 2001; Ulaga & Eggert, 2006).
In rural tourism, with its own very specific characteristics, such as the personalised welcome and sense of family and domestic ambience (Salgado, 2010; Serrano & Molina, 2002; Silva, 2007), TK may contribute towards fostering loyalty. This resource may also help in determining the requisites customers are seeking to see satisfied and thus catering for them on an individualised basis, fostering value and differentiation (Antón et al., 2008; Cerro, 2009).
In this context, this chapter proposes a model highlighting the role of TK in developing loyalty in the rural lodgings sector across its cognitive, technical and social dimensions.
This chapter starts with a literature review on the concepts around tacit knowledge and its technical, social and cognitive dimensions. This subsequently characterises rural tourism activities and the enablers of loyalty identified by the empirical studies, in the majority related with tourism activities and according to which we set out our research hypotheses. Through recourse to a Structural Equation Model, we then describe the testing of the study model and its respective variable in order to return conclusions about the impact of TK on loyalty. Finally, we present the conclusions and final considerations about this chapter.